elon university: elon, north carolina

NFL: Brett Favre – The Revolving Door of Retirement

By Christian Binder, WSOE Sports

Are there any rules about how many times a person can retire then come back? Apparently not. Yes, once again, Brett Favre has gone on the retirement roller coaster and come out on the “I want to play” end. Favre signed a 2-year, $25 million contract with the Minnesota Vikings on August 18th. That’s right. A 2-year contract. That means he’s guaranteed to be around for this season and next season, right? Well, my guess is that at the end of this season, he’ll say he’s had enough in a tearful ceremony, declare himself retired, be placed on the reserve-retired list, and join the Vikings again next year after skipping training camp.

Truth be told, I am a little bitter as a Jets fan because Favre technically had a 2-year deal with the team. However, after losing the last four games of the season and tearing his biceps tendon, Favre decided to call it quits again. The Jets bought out the second year of his deal and it looked like Favre was finally out of football for good. Then he had arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Now he’s wearing purple. The endless Brett Favre saga takes another twist. He said in his introductory press conference that he is coming back “for the right reasons,” meaning he thinks he still has plenty left in the tank and he can win a Super Bowl. Yeah right. I don’t buy that for a second. He has a torn rotator cuff that the Vikings know about, yet signed him anyway. The only reason he wants to play for the Vikings is so he can play the Packers twice a year. He openly has disdain for GM Ted Thompson and wants to stick it to them. The thing is, if he’s not in good shape and can’t play at 100%, then what’s the point, especially if the Vikings lose?

Now for the Vikings side of things. They brought in Sage Rosenfels this offseason to compete with Tarvaris Jackson for the starting quarterback job. Both men attended training camp and there was no clear winner as of this week. Enter Brett Favre. No training camp for Favre and he automatically gets handed the starting job. Both Rosenfels and Jackson were upset about the acquisition and it really sends out a message that Vikings management never really trusted either player to win. The acquisition of Favre goes deeper than the depth chart, though. By skipping training camp, Favre has absolutely no chemistry with his teammates and he instantly disrupts the chemistry that was already there. Minnesota fans may already be celebrating their Super Bowl victory, but the NFC North is much improved this year, so there’s no guarantee that a 39-year-old (soon to be 40) quarterback can lead this team to a championship.